Cover image for 100 amazing facts about the Negro
Title:
100 amazing facts about the Negro
ISBN:
9780307908711
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
xii, 476 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
Contents:
Which journalist was among the first to bring black history facts to the masses? -- How many Africans were taken to the United States during the entire history of the slave trade? -- Who was the first African to arrive in America -- Who was the first black saint? -- Who was the first black president in North America? -- Who were Africa's first ambassadors to Europe? -- Who was the first black explorer of the North American Southwest? -- Which slave literally wrote his way to freedom? -- What was the first black town in North America? -- Who was George Washington's runaway slave? -- Who was the first black person in the United States to lead a "back to Africa" effort? -- Who was the first black person to see the baby Jesus? -- Where was the first black town in what is now the United States? -- What happened to the "forty acres and a mule" that former slaves were promised? -- Were slaves actually eaten by dogs? -- Where was the first Underground Railroad? -- What was the second Middle Passage? -- How much did the cotton industry shape American history and the lives of enslaved Africans? -- How much African ancestry does the average African American have? -- Who originated the concept of the "talented tenth" black leadership class? -- Who was the first African-American fighter pilot? -- Did black people own slaves? If so, why? -- How did Harriet Tubman become a legend? -- When did black literature begin to address African-American sexuality? -- Is most of what we believe about the Underground Railroad true? -- Did Russia's Peter the Great adopt an African man as his son? -- Were Alexander Pushkin's African roots important to him? -- Was Jackie Robinson court-martialed? -- What is one of the most novel ways a slave devised to escape bondage? -- Who was the first black head of state in modern Western history?-- Were there any successful slavery escapes by sea? -- How was black support enlisted for World War II, when the armed services were segregated? -- How did the Black Sambo memorabilia that is collected today come to be? -- Who was Plessy in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case? -- What is Juneteenth? -- Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire? -- Did black combatants fight in the Battle of Gettysburg? -- Before Emancipation, didn't most free blacks live in the northern half of America? -- Why did free black people living in the South before the end of the Civil War stay there? -- How did the son of a former slave defy the color bar to become a wealthy fixture of European nightlife during the Jazz Age? -- Which massacre resulted in a Supreme Court decision limiting the federal government's ability to protect black Americans from racial targeting? -- Which episode of racial violence destroyed the community known as the "Black Wall Street"? -- How could integrating information about the fight for civil rights into K-12 curricula better to educate our children and foster a real conversation on race? -- Which civil rights leader and gay barrier-breaker was kept in the shadows by the civil rights movement establishment? -- Did Martin Luther King, Jr., improvise in the "Dream" speech? -- Which enslaved African managed to press his case for freedom all the way to the White House? -- Who was history's wealthiest person? -- Who was the first black poet in the Western world? -- Who was the founder of Chicago? -- What's the real story of the legendary mixed-race slave trader Joel Rogers called "Mongo John"? -- How did the story of Solomon Northup, the author of Twelve Years a Slave, first become public? -- Who was the first black man to serve in the U.S. Senate? --
Summary:
"From one of our premier writers, scholars, and public intellectuals: a surprising, inspiring, often boldly infuriating, highly instructive and entertaining compendium of curiosities regarding African Americans. In 1934, 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof: A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro was published by Joel A. Rogers, a largely self-educated black journalist and historian. Now with élan and erudition--and winning enthusiasm--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Rogers's work. Relying on the latest scholarship, Gates leads us on a romp through African American history and gossip in question and answer format: Who was the first African American? What was the second Middle Passage? Did black people own slaves? Why was cotton king? Who was the first black president in North America? How much African ancestry does the average African American have? Who really invented "the talented tenth"? What were the biggest acts of betrayal within the enslaved community? Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire? For 100 questions, 100 answers, intended to shine light on the sheer complexity and diversity of being African American."--Provided by publisher.
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